examine how film/media employs colorblind racism unconsciously by exploring a narrative trope.

3-4 pages, you will examine how a seemingly benign trope in cinema becomes racist even if the director/actors does/do not realize it. You will examine one film (from the approved list of films below) and explore how the trope that doesn’t appear racist on the surface (to many average viewers) transforms an otherwise non-racist film into a racist one.

How does this trope work in the film to maintain the status quo even if the film has been seen as revolutionary in terms of race and/or showered with awards? To this end, you will look at how either the “magical negro/minority” trope or the “white savior” trope is used in a film, but make sure that the trope you pick actually appears in the film about which you are writing. Think of this as a way to challenge the dominant reading of a film while exploring the ways in which race, language, and narrative intersect to undercut the message that a film seems to say on the surface.

You also need to use at least two quotes that come from outside, ACADEMIC sources that pertain to either the film or the narrative trope about which you are writing. That is, the quotes you include should come from peer reviewed journal articles or books published by an academic press.

Below is the approved list of films you can use for your second essay.  

Crooked Arrows

Avatar

The Green Mile

American History X

Dances with Wolves

The Help

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

The Last Samurai

Django Unchained

Half-Nelson

The Last of the Mohicans

Monster’s Ball                          

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Babel

Cloud Atlas

12 Years a Slave

42

District 9

Song of the South

Ghost

Freedom Writers

Gran Torino

The Matrix

The Darjeeling Unlimited

Hitch

The Shawshank Redemption